<
https://reasonstobecheerful.world/workshops-teach-teen-girls-in-mumbai-confidence-strength/>
"As Nausheen, a 14-year-old Mumbai schoolgirl, demonstrates the kicks and
punches she has newly learned, there is a perceptible change in her body
language. From a shy, giggly teenager, she turns into a budding supergirl:
somehow she seems taller, her stance straighter and her voice louder.
“When I practice these moves, I feel a surge of power inside me,” she says. “I
feel like I don’t have any fear.”
Nausheen has been learning martial arts — among other concepts such as consent
and communication — at the free biweekly workshops conducted by the nonprofit
MukkaMaar at her government school in a crowded Mumbai suburb. “I have learned
to be strong and to face people with confidence,” she says, “whether it is my
parents at home or strangers outside.”
Contrast this with what MukkaMaar’s founder Ishita Sharma remembers from a
casual conversation with a group of middle-school girls a few years ago. When
asked what they would do if someone attacked them on the streets, they
unanimously responded: Shout
bachao bachao! (help).
“They didn’t even think about it,” Sharma says. “It was a natural response to
expect someone else to come and save them, because that is what they have been
taught, what they have seen in movies.”
It was with the basic aim to shift this control from the outsider to the
individual that Sharma started MukkaMaar — roughly translating to “throw a
punch” — as an empowerment program for adolescent girls. “Women need to take
responsibility for their own safety and not succumb to the ‘What will the poor
woman do?’ narrative,” she explains."
Via
Positive.News
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
